Stefan is helping Elena channel her hatred of Katherine into a workout so Elena won’t try to go after her. He acknowledges that he wanted to kill Klaus after he turned his humanity back on, but he knew he couldn’t. Elena’s like, “So you think I can’t kill Katherine?” Yes, Elena. You can’t kill Katherine. She’s 500 years older than you. Anyway, Stefan doesn’t think Elena actually wants to kill Katherine. Uh, wrong. Elena has gone from caring about nothing to caring about one thing: ridding the world of Katherine Pierce.
At the Grill, Rebekah confirms with Matt that they’re supposed to send out graduation announcements so people will send them money. He’s not sending any since he doesn’t have much family, and it’s not like his mom is going to send him a check. Rebekah’s only family is her brothers, who don’t care that she’s graduating, but she’s had some announcements made up anyway.
Outside, Caroline’s working on hers while Elena completes exactly one, for the family friends who took in Jeremy in Denver. She doesn’t care much about graduating anyway. Caroline thinks she will once she gets past this all-hating-Katherine-all-the-time phase. Elena thinks Caroline knows where Katherine is and isn’t telling her – and if she did know, she would tell Elena, right? RIGHT? Caroline tells her to chill.
Katherine meets up with Bonnie in the woods, where Bonnie’s charging the three points of the expression triangle so she can power up Silas’ headstone, which will let her drop the veil to the Other Side (but only inside the triangle). She needs to contact Qetsiyah and find out how she was able to put Silas down 2,000 years ago. Yes, this means the dead will rise in Mystic Falls, but it’ll be worth it.
Katherine doesn’t want to have anything to do with this, but when she tries to leave, she finds she can’t. Bonnie has linked the two of them to each other, which basically means she has Katherine on an invisible leash. She can’t risk Silas finding Katherine, getting in her head, and realizing Bonnie doesn’t have to wait for a full moon to do the spell.
There’s been an incident at the hospital, so Stefan and Damon both head over. Stefan’s annoyed that Damon isn’t helping Elena get past her rage in a healthy way. Damon doesn’t see the point in trying to talk her out of her quest to bring down Katherine. Liz joins them and reveals that a bunch of patients have been attacked and almost drained of blood. She suspects Silas, and Stefan guesses he’s fueling up for something big. Damon tells Liz about the spell Silas wants Bonnie to do the next night.
Bonnie drags Katherine along to the Lockwood cellar, reminding her that since they’re linked, Katherine should think twice before hurting her. Bonnie links the location of the hybrid massacre to the other two points of the triangle, which causes the wind to kick up around town. Caroline notices at the Grill, where she, Matt, and Rebekah are keeping an eye on Elena. Rebekah offers Elena a drink as she plays darts, imagining that the board is Katherine’s face. Which is…also her own face, so that seems a little unhealthy. Elena doesn’t want to chat with Rebekah, since their “Thelma and Louise thing” is over and they’re not friends.
Caroline asks if she and Elena are still friends. After all, Elena said some pretty horrible things when her humanity was off. Elena doesn’t want to revisit that, but Caroline won’t drop it. She’s afraid Elena really meant what she said. Elena won’t apologize, since that would mean letting herself feel bad, which would allow other emotions to trickle in. So her emotions are back on, but she’s only letting herself feel rage. The lights suddenly go out, and Matt and Rebekah see that the power’s out for the whole block.
At Pastor Young’s farm, Bonnie finishes her link-up and tells Katherine it’s time to drop the veil. Meanwhile, Stefan, Damon, and Liz discover that the places in town where power outages have originated are the points on the expression triangle. They guess that Bonnie’s doing the spell a day early. Liz reports that someone saw Bonnie at the farm with Elena, whom Stefan knows is with Caroline. The guys determine that Bonnie and Katherine must be right in the center of the triangle, which happens to be Mystic Falls High School.
They head over there and meet up with Elena, who tells them Caroline’s already inside, looking for Bonnie. Stefan goes in after her, and Elena asks Damon where Katherine is. Damon knows she’s asking Daddy because Mommy wouldn’t tell her. He points out that they have a bigger problem to deal with right now. Their priority is finding Bonnie. Elena says she doesn’t care about Bonnie, just Katherine. Damon finally tells her they’re together, so if they find Bonnie, they’ll also find Katherine.
Stefan and Caroline meet up in the cafeteria and hear a noise in the kitchen. He notices that ice in the freezer is melting. The water drips into a drain, making Stefan think they’re in the right spot, just on the wrong level. Below them, in the underground tunnels, Bonnie has located the center of the triangle. Katherine hands over the headstone so Bonnie can use Qetsiyah’s blood for her spell.
The others decide to meet up in the boiler room, where they’ll have access to the basement and the tunnels, but Damon won’t let Elena come along. He’s afraid Elena will go after Katherine and screw things up for the gang. Elena’s rage is masking grief and all the other emotions she’s trying not to feel right now. If she kills Katherine, she’ll release them all and will probably get overwhelmed, which might make her flip her humanity switch again. Elena thinks killing Katherine might actually help. She wants to clear this hurdle and go back to her normal self. Damon won’t budge – Katherine is strong and crafty, and Elena will die. She stakes him in the stomach and says, “At least I’ll die trying,” then zooms off.
Underground, Bonnie channels the expression triangle and makes the headstone bleed. The veil drops.
Damon is trying to pull out the stake when he gets assistance from an unexpected source: Alaric. “So this is either really good or really bad,” Damon notes. He suspects that Alaric is really Silas, so Alaric shows him a locker where he stashed a bottle of bourbon. He and Damon hug. Aww! Damon guesses that Bonnie dropped the veil. Alaric explains that it’s only down inside the expression triangle. Damon is surprised there aren’t more ghosts around. Alaric says that not all of them have a reason to come to Mystic Falls – just the ones like him, “looking out for their idiot best friends.” Aww again! They’re best friends! Damon says he’s more worried about enemies than friends.
The wind has died down, and Matt and Rebekah are alone at the Grill, where she’s lit a bunch of candles. He tells her she can go, but she thinks it’s cozy. She seems to think something romantic is going to happen. Sorry, Rebekah – you’re about to get blocked by your brother Kol. She’s happy to see him, but he’s not moved, since she only mourned him for about a day after he died. He explains that Bonnie didn’t drop the veil completely, and it’s only temporary. He just wanted to pop into Mystic Falls to get revenge. He can’t get it on Jeremy, the person who actually killed him, but he can go after Jeremy’s co-conspirator, Elena.
Matt warns Kol not to hurt Elena, so Kol breaks a bottle as a warning for Matt to stay back. Rebekah tells her brother to leave – Elena left a while ago and they don’t know where she is. “I see you finally got the quarterback to pay attention to you,” Kol sneers. He asks how Matt’s throwing arm is, then whips the bottle at him so it embeds itself in his shoulder.
Underground, Bonnie tries to connect with Qetsiyah. Katherine hears someone approaching and tells Bonnie to unlink them so she can go intercept whoever it is. Bonnie’s frustrated with Katherine bugging her while she’s trying to concentrate, so she drops the leash and sends Katherine away. Katherine thinks Silas is lurking around, but it’s really Elena. She stabs Katherine in the stomach, which makes Bonnie bleed, too. Elena then takes Katherine to the boiler room and presses her face against a hot pipe. Again, Bonnie feels the same thing Katherine does.
Stefan and Caroline find Bonnie, who tells them she and Katherine are linked. Caroline offers to stay with Bonnie while Stefan goes to find Katherine. He manages to tackle Elena just as she’s about to stake Katherine. Katherine thanks him, and he tells her to get out of there before he kills her himself. She replies that she’s not his biggest problem right now.
Rebekah fixes up Matt’s shoulder the human way, since he won’t let her give him vampire blood. He doesn’t want to run the risk of dying with vampire blood in his system. She goes to the storeroom to get a first-aid kid and is shocked to find Caroline there, cutting her wrist over and over as if she’s in a trance.
Underground, the other Caroline – really Silas – tells Bonnie that Qetsiyah isn’t coming. Bonnie’s confused because she thought Silas couldn’t get in her head anymore. That was just a trick he pulled; he can still make himself look like anyone. He switches between looking like Stefan, Caroline, and his real self as he taunts that Bonnie still has no idea what he looks like or how powerful he is. When he killed Jeremy, he beat the hunter’s curse in just minutes. He’s furious that Bonnie betrayed him, and he warns that he’ll always be a step ahead of her.
Elena yells at Stefan for not letting her kill Katherine. He explains that Bonnie linked herself to Katherine, so Elena would have killed Bonnie, too. She doesn’t believe him and thinks he wants Katherine alive for some reason. Maybe he still has feelings for her. Stefan says that killing Katherine won’t take away Elena’s pain over losing Jeremy. It would be a distraction, just like turning off her humanity. There are no shortcuts. Loss is part of being a vampire.
Stefan has lost tons of loved ones over the past century and a half, and it hurts every time. Elena needs to face her grief like he always has. But he’ll help her so she doesn’t have to do it alone. Elena’s tired of him always being concerned about her. He invites her to keep transferring her anger onto him, since at least she’s dealing with it. She tells him she’s not transferring anything – she can hate both him and Katherine. When she starts to leave and he tries to stop her, she punches him.
Rebekah has to hold Caroline’s hands to stop her from trying to keep cutting herself. Matt calls Damon to tell him that Caroline’s been at the Grill the whole time, which means Silas is at the school. He adds that Kol has also made an appearance and wants revenge on Elena. Damon tells Alaric to call Stefan and tell him to keep an eye on Elena. Damon thinks Stefan will do a better job of that than he would. Alaric notes that Elena is Damon’s girlfriend, but Damon isn’t sure, with the sire bond gone and Elena’s humanity only recently coming back. Alaric knows Damon’s freaking out because he doesn’t know how she feels about him. This is not the time for that discussion, Ric!
Back at the Grill, Rebekah struggles to get Caroline under control. She’s on vervain, so Rebekah can’t compel her to stop cutting herself. She shows Caroline a graduation announcement, telling her that her aunt and uncle want her to graduate with both of her hands. Caroline chants that she needs to keep cutting, so Rebekah finally hauls back and slaps her. “B&%#$!” Caroline exclaims once she’s recovered. Yeah, she’s back to normal.
Bonnie tells Silas (currently appearing to her as Caroline) to stay away from her, which he says he’d be happy to do once she’s finished the spell. As soon as the veil has been completely dropped, he’ll take the cure. He’ll even let Bonnie kill him. Bonnie doesn’t want to unleash all dead supernatural beings in the world, but it’s that or keep Silas around, so…tough choice, actually. Bonnie reveals that she was never going to completely drop the veil. Silas knows she wanted to talk to Qetsiyah, but that’s not going to happen. Qetsiyah wants Silas to spend eternity with her on the Other Side. Damon’s approaching, and Silas turns into Alaric and says he might convince Bonnie to drop the veil. Bonnie says she won’t let him, so he makes her believe she can’t breathe.
Elena goes to Jeremy’s grave and admits defeat. Stefan’s right that there’s no point in killing Katherine. She’s just distracting herself from her grief. She cries and says she can’t move on and doesn’t want to. She can’t handle her brother being gone or the feelings she has now. Fortunately, she’s about to have the chance to channel her sadness into action – Kol has found her, and he wants to fight.
Sheila appears to Bonnie and helps her overcome Silas’ trick to make her think she couldn’t breathe. Bonnie’s relieved to finally get confirmation that the spirits haven’t hurt Sheila. She regrets the decisions she’s made, but Sheila says there’s still time for her to stop Silas. Expression is the manifestation of Bonnie’s will. Sheila doesn’t like it, but Bonnie doesn’t have another choice. She’s strong enough to do what she needs to do.
Damon runs into Alaric, who reports that he called Stefan and sent him to find Elena. When he asks if Damon found Silas, Damon says yes, then clocks him in the face with a flashlight. How did he know this wasn’t really Alaric? Damon knows the tunnels, and the direction Silas came from wasn’t where Alaric was supposed to be coming from. He strangles Silas with a chain and says mind games won’t work on him.
Bonnie approaches and says she knows how to stop Silas, even if she can’t kill him. She magically turns him to stone like Qetsiyah did 2,000 years ago. She tells Damon he’s becoming his true self and can’t use mind control anymore. Damon asks who Silas’ true self is. Since his face is now stone, Bonnie says they’ll never know.
In the cemetery, Kol beats up on Elena, happy to be able to interact with her after months of invisibly watching her and wishing he could make her suffer. You’d think he would consider Jeremy’s death enough punishment for her. Elena tells Kol to go ahead and put her out of her misery. As he’s about to, he has to spin around to grab a stake being fired at him. Jeremy’s back, and he’s brought a crossbow with him in case he needs to put Kol down again.
Now Kol gets to face off with the person who killed him. But as he’s trying to make a dramatic statement before fighting Jeremy, Stefan zooms up and breaks his neck. Elena happily reunites with her brother, finally feeling something other than rage.
Bonnie, Damon, and Stefan gather to discuss what to do with Silas’ body. Damon calls Bonnie “Medusa” and notes that if Silas gets even a drop of blood, his stony state will be undone. Stefan suggests that they dust off their old plan for Klaus and throw Silas’ body in the ocean.
Elena approaches to apologize to Bonnie for how horrible she was while her humanity was off. Bonnie acknowledges that Elena wasn’t herself. Bonnie knows what that’s like. For now, she wants Elena to enjoy her time with Jeremy. She’ll give them as much time together as she can, but she does have to put the veil back up. Stefan volunteers to stash Kol’s body somewhere until he’s a ghost again. Elena stops him, probably to thank him for not letting her kill Katherine, but he just welcomes her back. Elena laments that she won’t have enough time with Jeremy. She wants to talk to Damon, too, but he tells her to focus on Jeremy right now.
Stefan goes to the Grill, where Caroline wants to share a drink to celebrate that Bonnie defeated Silas. Stefan’s down, though, because a certain ghost he expected to see didn’t show up to visit him. Fortunately, Lexi’s there after all. She thanks Caroline for keeping an eye on him.
Damon and Alaric load Silas’ body in Damon’s trunk for a trip to the ocean as Alaric jokes that this is a great way to spend what will be his last moments back in the real world. He swipes Damon’s flask, though Damon notes that Alaric said he was cutting back on alcohol. Alaric replies that he thought Damon was going to take care of the children. Damon thinks it’s creepy that Alaric was eavesdropping on that moment. Alaric hands Damon a box he pulled out of Silas’ pocket – the cure. Damon wonders what he’s supposed to do with it. “Get the girl,” Alaric tells him.
Stefan and Lexi take a walk, talking about how Elena punched him. She tells him to take a hint. Stefan asks if she’s really laughing at him after being back for five minutes. She replies that she’s been laughing at him for a while, but he’s just now able to see her. Heh. He tells her he misses her, and she says she knows, but it looks like he’s replaced her with Caroline. Lexi says she’s cute, but Stefan doesn’t want to discuss what she’s implying.
Underground, Sheila tells Bonnie it’s time to put up the veil. But first, Bonnie wants to do one more thing, the thing she’d always planned to do: She’s going to let Jeremy stay alive. Sheila tells her that it was nature’s will for Jeremy to die, and Bonnie can’t challenge that, no matter how strong her expression is. Bonnie disagrees, saying the spirits are on her side. She starts a spell to resurrect Jeremy, letting the dark magic engulf her. Sheila begs her to stop but Bonnie ignores her, and eventually Sheila disappears. The magic overwhelms Bonnie and she collapses.
Matt and Rebekah leave the Grill and come across another familiar face: her one-time hunter boyfriend, Alexander. The power comes back on everywhere, which makes Rebekah feel a little better – maybe the veil is back up and Alexander will disappear. No such luck, and he’s not the only hunter who’s paying a visit. Connor and Vaughn are there, too.
Bonnie regains consciousness and feels Sheila’s hand on her shoulder. She tells Bonnie that the spell was too much for her. She moves aside to reveal that Bonnie’s body is still lying on the ground. Shocked, Bonnie realizes that she’s dead.
Significant item update: Damon has the cure.
Etc.: I love how Damon tells Liz about the spell to drop the veil to the other side, and Liz says, “I have no idea what that means.” The gang is so used to talking about weird stuff that they forget that not everyone speaks their language.
I never realize how much I miss Alaric until he pops up in this episode. I also feel like he appeared so quickly after the veil went down because he was waiting right by it like a kid anxious to get outside for recess.
Too bad we don’t get to see Alaric calling Stefan and telling him everything that’s going on, followed by Stefan going, “Back up. Alaric?“
Why did Jeremy wait so long to make an appearance? He should have been out the gate ASAP like Alaric was. Or did he just take that long to find a crossbow? As for Lexi, I think she just wanted to make a dramatic entrance.
“How many times do I need to kill you?” is an awesome line.
No Vicki. Matt really can’t catch a break.
An Eternity of Misery 